Secondly, we all know the backstory about the little dirty joke Cooley drew the idea for this song from. In case you don’t, or need a refresher, here’s Patterson’s blurb from TFP liner notes:
Patterson Hood wrote:There’s this great dirty joke about a little horse and a big horse standing on top of a hill watching a bunch of girl horses in the pasture below. The much younger little one says: “Let’s run down the hill and screw us one of them horses.” The older, wiser big one replies: “No, let’s WALK down and screw them all.” Leave it to Cooley to turn that into a beautiful children’s song.
This may or may not help you understand it a little bit better, but it helped me, so here’s the basics of wild horse herd dynamics: Horses are prey animals, and so find their strength in numbers. They travel together as a group of mares (girl horses) and foals (baby horses), headed together and protected by one stallion (horse with balls). Because the stallion exclusively breeds to all the mares under his protection, herds are often referred to as a stallion’s ‘harem.’ Of course, those mares have both girl foals and boy foals (called fillies and colts). The fillies grow up to raise their father’s foals, and the colts get booted out of the herd when they begin to question the stallion’s authority (ironically, it is the alpha mare in charge of ex-communicating them, not the stallion). These colts usually find other ostracized colts to run around with – these are called ‘bachelor herds.’ The bachelor stallions run around, growing stronger and abler while herd stallions predictably grow older and weaker. Some bachelors will try to be sneaky and steal only one or two mares, and try to build their harem from the ground up. But most will wait to challenge a herd’s patriarch. The two stallions will rear, bite, paw, and kick in a duel for control of the entire herd – and it is a fight to the death. The loser of the battle limps away to die while the other takes possession of his mares. If the bachelor times his duel correctly, he assumes the role as head patriarch in an established band. If he doesn’t, his foolish decision will cost him his life. Such is the way of horses in the wild.
What occurred to me when thinking about all of this, was the tie I found between the horse herd dynamics and the metaphorical representation in the song (more about that later). For, of course, the entire song is a metaphor. What I think Cooley was using the horse imagery for was conveying the inevitable “passing of the reins,” as it were (lol) from the older generation to the younger generation. The ‘little pony’ is a metaphorical representation of the younger generation, with the ‘great big horse’ being the older.
For those of you who may not know, a pony is technically any horse that is smaller than 14.2 hands (or 58 inches) at the withers (highest point of shoulder located at base of neck). A horse is anything taller than that. But from Cooley’s comparative adjectives of ‘little’ and ‘great big,’ you probably already knew about the difference in size.
I don’t hold a candle to y’all when it comes to analyzing lyrics, but I’ll try to the best of my abilities, so please bear with me. Looking at the song line-by-line:
Little Pony and Great Big Horse went out at a great big trot.
Great Big Horse could trot real fast, Little Pony he could not.
First of all, what is a trot? A trot is a two-beat diagonal gait that is slightly faster than a walk. If you’ve ever passed an Amish buggy or been to a harness racing track, this is the gait those horses are performing. It looks like a bunch of small, quick strides, but it is efficient and ground-covering, usually around 10-14 mph. This was known as the working gait back on the farm – horses like the Saddlebred and Missouri Fox Trotter were bred to have easy-riding trots that could allow their rider to sit in the saddle and oversee their farms all day long. So I believe that the trot is a metaphor for work. The little pony is just starting out at a trot, while the great big horse is used to trotting around. The great big horse’s experience makes him a much faster and more efficient worker than little pony.
Great Big Horse had run so fast for so much of his great big life.
Great big world he was runnin' in was getting smaller all the time.
This line harkens back to a lot of what Cooley wrote about in 72. The older horse has been running around (traveling) ever since he was a ‘little pony,’ getting to see the world and, over the course of time (so much of his great big life), realizing that it really is a lot smaller than he originally imagined (the things he found in his own neck of the woods were the same things he found in everyone else’s).
But Little Pony still saw the great big world just like it was.
Big and funny lookin', lookin' through Big Horse's dust.
On the other hand, the younger ‘little pony’ is just seeing the world for the first time. He hasn’t yet developed the disillusionment and cynicism that the great big horse’s experiences have given him. He still sees everything as new for him to explore, and he has the benefit of seeing it with the hindsight of how great big horse’s actions impacted it. This last part can be inferred by the ‘dust’ the great big horse raises. In order to raise this dust, great big horse must have done something. This may have been all the things he did and saw when he was younger. Little pony can see or try to see the world through what great big horse has done to it and/or what he has made of it.
When Little Pony caught Great Big Horse he said, "what is this I see?"
Great Big Horse said, "I don't know, slow down, you follow me."
I can assume that in order to catch up to great big horse, little pony had to eventually be able to trot faster or harder in some way. Catching up to great big horse may symbolize little pony reaching great big horse’s mental or intellectual level, or working level. His question, however, proves that no matter how he’s caught up, he’s still young and brash and has much to learn. Great big horse tells him to stay in his place (by slowing down – passing up great big horse isn’t going to do little pony much good because he doesn’t know what’s ahead) and let him lead the way because he’s older and wiser – much like a parent leads their child in the path of life.
Great Big Horse said, "over there's a hill I used to climb."
He took Little Pony up to the top and they looked down at the lights.
This line makes me think that great big horse is showing (or trying to show) little pony the world through his own eyes or experiences, by taking little pony up a hill that he used to climb (presumably in his youth). The hill may symbolize not merely a place, however, but an event or achievement that is hard won (climbing a hill sure ain’t easy). I like to think it’s a metaphor for the challenge of attaining adulthood or coming of age, as it seems to fit what I think the whole song is about. At the top of the hill, they are able to look down at the lights below. The lights and what they symbolize stumped me for a while. Here’s the best I’ve got. A light is bright, glowing and vibrant. At the same time it can be dim and flickering. Perhaps the lights look different to both generations. The lights may be the glow of youth for little pony, but they may be trundling out on their way to extinction for great big horse.
Great Big Horse said, "I ain't seen these lights in so dang long.
I'm sure glad that they're still here, I'd hate it if they's gone."
Light oftentimes represents life – an extinguished light representing death. Great big horse is relieved to find that his lights are not extinguished. That’s why he’s so glad to see them still there – he still has some life left. He may not have seen them in so long because he’s been too busy living to think about the lights going out. He would hate it if the lights were gone because that would presumably mean that his time is up. His experiences have taught him to appreciate and revere life (these lights), which is why he’s able to view them fondly from the top of the hill.
Little Pony snorted and jumped straight up into the air.
Great Big Horse said, "settle down," even though he did not care.
Little pony is still young, the lights are still bright and meaningless to him, and he shows his irreverence to them by snorting and jumping around, which would be playful or mocking behavior for a young stallion. Great big horse shows his mild disapproval by telling him to settle down, but he does not really care if the little pony does or not – he knows what it’s like to be young, and he knows that someday little pony will outgrow being young and stupid and not caring about important things. This line always makes me think that perhaps it is Cooley’s own generation that he’s talking about with little pony. Patterson described it in TSTAHE as the “fuck you” generation that he and Cooley belonged to. When they were young, they showed irreverence to the musical traditions they grew up with and immersed themselves in the sounds of out-of-tune-guitar grunge rock. It was only much much later, when they got to be great big horse’s generation, that they grew to appreciate the things in music that the generation before them appreciated. So I guess, in that sense, the lights could also be music, but I’ll just stick with what I already wrote.
Climbin' all those hills made Little Pony's legs so strong.
He could get to the top 'fore the Great Big Horse knew what was going on.
As little pony achieves the major milestones in his life (climbing the hills), he becomes a stronger, more well-rounded being because of all the experiences he gains. The speed with which he’s able to do this surprises great big horse, as he no sooner knows what little pony is doing than little pony has already done it. This I think symbolizes the fact that the younger generation picks up things more quickly than the generation before, because, as in all things progressive, the wheels pick up speed with each revolution. For example, I got my first cell phone, a pretty basic little thing, when I was 14 years old. It took me a long time before I even knew how to use the dumb thing (part of the reason why I refuse to get a new one). Now, I see the generation below me, little five-year-olds, walking around and using iphones just as easily as some adults. The younger generation seems to move at a much faster speed than the generation that came before.
Great Big Horse he blinked his great big brown eyes once or twice.
By the time he blinked and saw again, Little Pony was out of sight.
Great big horse’s drowsiness, demonstrated by his blinking his eyes, may mean that he is beginning to slow down. He cannot keep up with little pony, who is now moving forward at full speed (figuratively). As we grow older, we begin to slow down. The fact that little pony disappears in the blink of an eye shows how far ahead he is now in comparison to great big horse. If little pony is out of great big horse’s sight, I infer that that means that little pony is now exploring new worlds (making new discoveries) that even great big horse didn’t explore. He is now moving far ahead of great big horse’s time, to a place in a future that great big horse will not be a part of. **I also find it funny that Cooley got an itty bitty, seemingly insignificant detail about horses correct in this verse – nearly all horses (as in 98%) have brown eyes. He probably just chose it for an alliteration effect, but I still think it’s worth mentioning.**
Great Big Horse showed Little Pony worlds he could explore,
and Great Big Horse saw a big ol' world he'd never seen before.
By the time his mane turned gray and his old legs got rheumatized,
Little Pony was a great big horse, 'bout twice Big Horse's size.
According to OneOfTheseDays.org, this song was only played live twice. I went back into the archive and listened to both shows, 12-29-03 at Cooley’s house and 1-24-04 at the Star Bar, and found out that Cooley sang this verse both times, and placed it before the verse I just analyzed. Then, however, I listened back through Cooley’s solo shows and discovered that at the 7-16-04 show at the 40 Watt, he sang this verse in place of the preceding verse and omitted the other, while at his 2-25-05 show at the 40 Watt, he omitted this verse and sang the preceding one instead. That is the only live version of this song I found that matches TFP version exactly. So I’m going to call this an alternate verse. In any case, the verse has the same idea the preceding verse has, worded differently (and more plainly, IMO).
Little Pony and Great Big Horse went out at a great big trot.
Great Big Horse laid down to rest, Little Pony he did not.
This one’s pretty self-explanatory. Great Big Horse, unable to take the strenuous working pace any longer, lays down to rest and retire, while the fully grown Little Pony keeps on going. Thus the passage of Little Pony into a Great Big Horse – the new generation takes over where the old left off.
I guess where I really had my “aha moment” was when I connected what I knew about herd dynamics to the metaphor in this song. In the wild, it seems a more savage version of this passing from one generation to another occurs among the little ponies and great big horses. After all, the little colts spend much of their youth playfully rearing and biting at each other – practice for their duels in the future. Sometimes, when a very young colt attempts to challenge a stallion, the stallion will simply give the younger horse a light beating and let him off – telling him he’s not quite ready to be taken seriously, but enough of a warning against him being so kind in the future. When that time comes for the little pony to show he’s capable of picking up where the great big horse leaves off, the stallion accepts his defeat and lays down to die. You could argue that I’m making too much out of this horse thing and this transfer of endowment from one generation to the next can be seen within any animal society on the planet. But remember – Cooley did opt for the horse imagery over all the others to convey his meaning, and I think that’s important.
One more thing – I think this may be the only other song besides Cottonseed and Just Maybe that credits Cooley playing alone by himself on a record. It lacks the cool low C’s in Cottonseed and the guitar squeaks of Space City, but I still think the acoustic arrangement beautifully showcases Cooley’s god-given talents.
That’s literally about all I got for this song. I’m kinda new to posts like this, and I spent a week writing this goddamned thing, so I hope you can appreciate it. But if I just posted a bunch of bullshit and I totally missed the point of the song, please be sure to let me know.
There’s your song of the week, folks. Feel free to add your $0.02 on top of the pile.
and last summer Patterson was left alone. A friend
he is a
